Originally posted by ballvalve . How many of us tore apart our toys when we were kids? Mine got worn out from too many "repairs and minor modifications".

Boy, me too. Found speakers in Dads garage and wired 'um into my clock radio thinking I was making a sterio, made and wired a lamp with a switch at 12 just by winging it, lots of wood stuff. I remember Dad catching me using his table saw without permission! "How long you been using that?" He asked. "Quite a while" I answered. "Well, be careful"

Oh and the bikes! I made some cool mods, and some that hurt me bad! Made alot of my own toys too. Dont see that anymore.

05-26-2004, 10:14 AM

mattm

Quote:

Originally posted by spotts Oh and the bikes! I made some cool mods, and some that hurt me bad! Made alot of my own toys too. Dont see that anymore.

Did you ever hack saw the forks off one set and hammer them onto your bike to make a chopper. Those were dangerous but cool.

05-26-2004, 11:19 AM

spotts

Quote:

Originally posted by mattm

Quote:

Originally posted by spotts Oh and the bikes! I made some cool mods, and some that hurt me bad! Made alot of my own toys too. Dont see that anymore.

Did you ever hack saw the forks off one set and hammer them onto your bike to make a chopper. Those were dangerous but cool.

Oh yea, and you'd find like a 10" wheel of a little kids bike and put it out there, that and a bannana seat and a sissy bar and some of those curly handlebars! Cool man, all made out of a Schwinn Stingray frame found in the trash.

05-26-2004, 11:27 AM

spike

Just me...

Dad was a reporter in the White House press pool for the NY Times during WWII...

A little jealous of y'all who grew up in the trade...

05-26-2004, 12:40 PM

thehumid1

I am the black "goat" of the family dads a judge, my sister and brother are lawyers. Guess I was the only one with ethics.

05-26-2004, 01:41 PM

Green Mountain

Tinkering when I was a kid-- yes I remember. When transitor radios first became affordable I got one for graduating from the 8th grade.

The batteries went dead. It took 4-D cells. Anyaway I didn't have any money for new ones so I took a lamp cord and wired it to the battery terminals. Plugged it in. It worked good for about 5 seconds. Ahh, yes, my first electrical mushroom shaped cloud but not the last.

05-26-2004, 03:04 PM

JasonHoustonTX

My dad was a flight instructor for the astronauts at NASA. He retired from that and got into HVAC, started a company from scratch and I worked with him since the begining and now its in my blood. I am at the wheel now and am having a blast.

05-26-2004, 03:58 PM

absrbrtek

Started Solo!!

Father pushed a pencil. Got 1 son in the local going on to 4th year of aprenticeship. Have second one wanting to get in, Im trying to make that happen.

05-26-2004, 04:25 PM

ballvalve

Spotts its great to hear I wasnt the only one doing bike repairs and choppers... The best one was a shock absorber bike. I did all the cutting and fitting and figuring in about 1 day and then spent the next 3 nights tring to get my dad to take me to Uncle Butch's (my favorite uncle) to get it welded. All this at the ripe old age of 12 or so.

05-26-2004, 05:59 PM

ozone drone

My dad and step-dad after my father died, both worked in the steel mill (Bethlehem sparrows point plant in Baltimore)
I got into this when in the air force.

05-26-2004, 06:03 PM

infwsdm

Quote:

Originally posted by mattm

Quote:

Originally posted by spotts Oh and the bikes! I made some cool mods, and some that hurt me bad! Made alot of my own toys too. Dont see that anymore.

Did you ever hack saw the forks off one set and hammer them onto your bike to make a chopper. Those were dangerous but cool.

:) I remember those

05-26-2004, 06:08 PM

icemeister

My father grew up on a small dairy farm in Massachusetts and went to Mass Aggie in Amherst to get educated as a dairy technician. He went to work for a couple dairies and worked his way up. Then WWII came along, he went to sign up but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. He then volunteered for civil defense work and helped out the fire dept and road crews in town because of the shortage of guys to do the work.

There was also a shortage of refrigeration men, so since he had been helped out an older fellow servicing the local dairies, markets and such he started his own refrigeration business and left the dairy. I remember him telling of driving his new Chevy pickup through a driving blizzard from NH to Atlanta to attend his first distributor meeting at Warren Refrigeration in 1951.

My oldest brother joined him in 1962 and my other brother when he got out of the Navy around 1967. When I got out of school in 1971 we all worked together for a while until Dad retired to Florida......and now I've got my own business in Florida and how I wish Pop was still here to share it with me.

05-26-2004, 08:57 PM

i_got_ideas

Quote:

Originally posted by infwsdm

Quote:

Originally posted by mattm

Quote:

Originally posted by spotts Oh and the bikes! I made some cool mods, and some that hurt me bad! Made alot of my own toys too. Dont see that anymore.

Did you ever hack saw the forks off one set and hammer them onto your bike to make a chopper. Those were dangerous but cool.

:) I remember those

Anything I had that came apart did....sometimes had left over parts puting it back together though :D